Road Min takes stakeholders view on proposed regulator

The Road Ministry is discussing with stakeholders the proposal to set up a regulator for the sector and would move a note to the Cabinet after taking their view, Union Minister C P Joshi said today.

     
"We have discussed it with the stakeholders and now after gathering their views we will formulate a note for the Cabinet and then further, I can only say this right now," Joshi, the Minister of Road, Transport and Highways, told reporters here.

     
However, the minister did not respond to the question whether the bill would come up during the ongoing session of Parliament.

     
The proposed road regulator is likely to be a three- member body comprising representatives from Road Ministry, Finance Ministry, Law Ministry and Planning Commission.

     
The key functions of the proposed regulator are likely to be tariff setting, regulation of service quality, assessment of concessionaire claims, collection and dissemination of sector information, service-level benchmarks and monitoring compliance of concession agreements, among others.

   
At present, NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) along with the Road Ministry awards road projects.

     
Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his budget speech had said that the road construction sector is facing challenges, including financial stress, enhanced construction risk and contract management issues.

   
Meanwhile, at a National Transport Workshop, the minister said, "We face a daunting task of digitising legacy or old data which is in tune of close to 6 crore driving licences and 5 crore registration certificates," Joshi said while addressing at the transport workshop.

     
The Road Ministry aims to immediately finalise tenders of computerisation of the old data by May-end and the work would be completed by March 2015.